Disposable absorbent articles such as disposable baby diapers and adult incontinent briefs, underpants, guards and the like articles are widely used in homes and in various health care facilities and institutions. Indeed the use of such articles has become a common sanitary practice, and while initially such absorbent articles were used mostly for infant care, more recently their use has been expanded to include adults as well. In both instances, the absorbent article must be designed to effectively prevent leakage of urine and other fecal materials, while insuring body fit and comfort.
Most presently available absorbent articles are generally unitary in structure, pre-shaped and pre-folded, and comprise an absorbent pad having a liquid permeable top sheet facing the wearer's body, a liquid impermeable backsheet on the opposite side, and an absorbent sheet or panel disposed between the top sheet and the back sheet. The absorbent article comprises a front side portion, a crotch portion and a backside portion, and further includes elastic members along the circumference of the waist and around the leg openings. While the heretofore commercially available absorbent articles have been somewhat effective against leakage of body fluids and fecal materials, and have therefore met some degree of acceptability, they have not been entirely satisfactory for their intended applications. In other words, they have not proven to be entirely leak proof, nor have they completely prevented issuance of the body exudates outside the diaper or the underpants. These deficiencies are primarily due to inadequate and loose body fit, which result in leakage of the body fluids and solids through the legs' openings. These problems are even more pronounced in case of adults because of their diverse body shapes and varying contours. Another disadvantage of the commercially available absorbent articles such as diapers, incontinent briefs and the like, is associated with opening and removing the soiled article for inspection without soiling the wearer's leg or body, or changing the diaper while the wearer has his or her shoes and pants on.
There are several patents which disclose various attempts made in the prior art over the past years to eliminate, or at least minimize, the shortcomings of the present commercially available absorbent briefs. Some of these patents are referred to in the aforementioned commonly assigned, copending application Ser. No. 09/965,381, filed Sep. 27, 2001. That patent application describes a pull-up diaper comprising a coversheet, a backsheet, an absorbent layer disposed between the coversheet and the backsheet, a front waist region, a back waist region, a crotch region and a pair of leg openings through which extends the legs of the wearer of the diaper. The front and back waist regions are provided with fasteners for fastening the two regions together. In one embodiment, the fastening system comprises a pair of loop strips located at the lateral edges of the front waist region and a pair of correspondingly aligned hook strips located at the lateral edges of the back waist region such that when the back waist region and the front waist region are overlapped during wear, each hook strip releasably engages a correspondingly aligned loop strip. Other fastening systems are disclosed and in one variation the back waist region comprises one or more tape tabs located at its lateral edges. Each tab has one surface attached to the back waist region and an opposed hook surface aligned with a loop strip in the waist region. In order to fasten the diaper such as during wear, the back waist region and the front waist region are overlapped so as to engage the hook surface of each tab with a correspondingly aligned loop strip on the front waist region.
In a recent patent, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,484 issued Feb. 22, 2000 to Anette Remare, a pant diaper is described comprising a piece of fibrous nonwoven or plastic elastic material 9 having two parts 13 and 14 which can be pulled apart to define the side parts or flaps of the diaper. The side parts are fastened together by means of the hooks 15,16 and the loop 17 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The piece 9 is joined to the outer casing 3 of the front part of the diaper by the glue points 10 which may be homogeneously distributed as shown in FIG. 1 or non-homogenous glue points or fastening means 110 as shown in FIG. 3.
A more recent patent, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,287 B1 issued Sep. 11, 2002 to Laura Linda Elsberg describes a prefastened disposable article which includes a pair of primary fasteners located on opposed side edges of one waist region. The primary fasteners overlap and releasably engage the opposite waist region. A pair of passive bonds releasably connect the overlapped portion of one waist portion to the opposite waist region in order to maintain the article in prefastened condition.
In general, the pull-up diapers described in the prior art patents have a common structural deficiency in that they are provided with side seams which are welded together by heat and pressure or vibration (ultrasonic welding). Side seals must be sufficiently strong to hold the diaper on the person and must be capable of being torn so that the wearer can tear it easily in order to inspect or change the diaper while having his or her shoes on. Diapers having hook and loop fastening systems as described in the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 09/965,381 provide improvements over the prior art diaper, but nevertheless there is still a need for pull up type absorbent articles and other diapers which are comfortable to wear, highly effective against leakage of fluids and feces, can be readily inspected for soil and which a have compact fastener that is folded in place when the diaper is not being used.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article such as infant diapers, adult incontinent briefs, underpants, conventional diapers, pull-up and T-shaped diapers, and other like articles, which overcome the deficiencies and shortcomings of the prior art absorbent articles.
It is another object of this invention to provide disposable absorbent articles which, due to their unique construction, provide improved fit to the body and prevent leakage of urine and other body exudates through the leg openings, and which are easy to take apart for soil inspection.
It is also an object of this invention to provide such disposable absorbent articles which utilizes a unique multifold hook and loop fastening system in order to assure leakage prevention, simplify opening, inspection and reassembling of the diaper after inspection, and which is comfortable to wear by incontinent persons.
The foregoing and other objects and features of the present invention will be more fully comprehended and appreciated from the ensuing detailed description and drawings which form parts of this application.